I had a very interesting argument with a friend of mine who’s journalist. In a very provocative way, he tried to tell me that my job was like greenwashing, but in Social Media.

Let’s quote greenwashing definition (Wikipedia):

“Greenwashing (greenwhitewash) is the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly, such as by presenting cost cuts as reductions in use of resources.[1] It is a deceptive use of green PR or green marketing. The term green sheen has similarly been used to describe organizations that attempt to show that they are adopting practices beneficial to the environment.[2]”

So to say: that I could spread wrong facts or biased information to general public in order to improve my clients’ reputations.

Problem is: even if Citizen L. was Citizen Kane, it won’t work in our digital world.

Why that?

because truth always emerges, and even faster now through Social Web
– if a lie was diffused among a public of influencers, they could have a very aggressive posture
– you can now face and analyse facts in very diverse, parallel ways: access to these data are not vertical anymore

because influence is about working with relevant & legitimate people. If you go & look for a referent person in a specific field, you can hope that he’ll check & analyse all the messages we sent to him

because in the digital world, you don’t have the right to errors anymore. For the first time in communication history, lies are weaker than denials

because influencers are also journalists (good news)

because trying to infiltrate forums is just not possible: IP makes you feel like a white rabbit in front of hunters